I just saw Dawn of the Dead and now I'm pondering if it's the best zombie movie I've ever seen. My zombie knowledge is sadly a little limited; I wasn't interested in them at all until I saw 28 Days Later. If the 2004 version of Dawn is in fact the best zombie movie I've ever seen, it's because it balances its high production values with the sort of excellent dialogue and acting that I haven't seen from Romero, while keeping all of the tension you'd see from 28 Days and 28 Weeks while having the coherent and fully fleshed out plot that both of those films lacked. Here's the top 5 zombie movies that I've seen.
1.Shaun of the Dead - It might be just the tiniest bit less tense and exciting than the 2004 Dawn, but has the production values and gorefest to match any zombie movie - and that stuff's just icing on top of the comedy cake.
2.Dawn of the Dead [2004] - Like I said, this one is the total package. Great acting, dialogue, plot, story, gore - some people you like die and it's sad, some people you dislike die and it's great, some people you used to dislike but now you like die and its saddest of all because you've seen their "growth."
3.28 Days Later - The first half, if it were a standalone movie, would top everything else on this list. Brendan Gleeson + Cillian Murphy= fucking awesome. And Christopher Eccleston is pretty awesome too, but the whole second half with the soldiers just doesn't quite ring right. Danny Boyle rarely makes a complete movie.
4.Dawn of the Dead [1978] - Comedy, Marxist commentary, lots of (semi-believable) gore, and one exhilarating bout of wheelbarrow based zombie shooting. The classic.
5. Night of the Living Dead - The one that started it all. Unspeakably bad acting and low production values, but still satisfying.
Not making the cut: 28 Weeks Later, I am Legend (zombie/vampire hybrids), probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. But I haven't seen that many zombie movies.
Here's the list of zombie stuff I still need to watch. Please, recommend anything not on here, and suggest which of these I should watch first, if you've got an opinion:
Day of the Dead
Land of the Dead
Dead Alive
Zombi
Fido
Cemetery Man
Re-Animator
1 comment:
you, sir, are crazy. i hated the new dawn of the dead. though i guess i prefer my zombie movies either exceptionally silly (see: Planet Terror) or classic and heavily allegorical (see: Night of the Living Dead).
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